STEAM: Dear Esther ($4.99, midweek deal 50% off, ends 5/16 4PM PST)

[Drunken Savior]

About the Game
“A deserted island…a lost man…memories of a fatal crash…a book written by a dying explorer.”

Two years in the making, the highly anticipated Indie remake of the cult mod Dear Esther arrives on PC. Dear Esther immerses you in a stunningly realised world, a remote and desolate island somewhere in the outer Hebrides. As you step forwards, a voice begins to read fragments of a letter: "Dear Esther..." - and so begins a journey through one of the most original first-person games of recent years. Abandoning traditional gameplay for a pure story-driven experience, Dear Esther fuses it’s beautiful environments with a breathtaking soundtrack to tell a powerful story of love, loss, guilt and redemption.

Forget the normal rules of play; if nothing seems real here, it’s because it may just be all a delusion. What is the significance of the aerial -- What happened on the motorway -- is the island real or imagined -- who is Esther and why has she chosen to summon you here? The answers are out there, on the lost beach, the windswept cliffs and buried in the darkness of the tunnels beneath the island… Or then again, they may just not be, after all…

Dear Esther is supported by Indie Fund.

Key features:
-Every play-through a unique experience, with randomly generated audio, visuals and events.
-Explore Incredible environments that push the Source engine to new levels of beauty.
-A poetic, semi-randomised story like you've never experienced in a game before.
-Stunning soundtrack featuring world-class musicians.
-An uncompromisingly inventive game delivered to the highest AAA standards.


PC System Requirements
Minimum:

OS:Microsoft Windows XP / Vista / Vista64
Processor:Intel core 2 duo 2.4GHz or higher
Memory:1GB XP / 2GB Vista
Graphics: DirectX 9 compliant video card with Shader model 3.0 support. NVidia 7600, ATI X1600 or better (Pre-Sandybridge Intel graphics chipsets not yet supported)
DirectX®:9.0c
Hard Drive:2 GB HD space
Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card


Recommended:

OS:Microsoft Windows XP / Vista / Vista64
Processor: Quad core 2.4GHz or higher
Memory:1GB XP / 2GB Vista
Graphics: DirectX 9 compliant video card with Shader model 3.0 support. NVidia 8800, ATI Radeon 2900 pro or better (Pre-Sandybridge Intel graphic chipsets not supported)
DirectX®:9.0c
Hard Drive:2 GB HD space
Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card


Mac System Requirements

OS: MAC OS X 10.6.7 or higher
Processor: Intel Core Duo Processor (2GHz or better)
Memory: 2GB
Hard Disk Space: At least 2 GB of Space
Video Card: ATI Radeon 2400 or higher / NVIDIA 8600M or higher / Intel HD Graphics 3000

[Northeastmonk]

I didnt get the point in the objective unless its all about finding all the parts of the script. Otherwise it looks great and is very atmospheric.

[Reality]

I picked it up. Playing it now. Very heavy on atmosphere. Game sometimes tries to spoke you with visual tricks. Caught me off guard before.

[Drunken Savior]

Is it scary? Is it an adventure game? I've been looking at the game for awhile, and I've heard interesting things about it, but I can't recall any first hand experiences from people I know.

[Reality]

Well, you follow a linear path from point A to B. Doing some light exploring and taking in the vast sights and mysteries of the island. The character seems to talk to him. Like he is writing letters. Its not scary to say but there is a feeling of dread. From being so alone I suppose. Twice now I've seen a phantom figure. Once it was walking ahead of me barely visible. Almost out of view. The second time it was watching me from a heigh point on the cliffs. Right now I think I am on Chapter 3? I walked through caves and finally made it back to the coast. Were candles, light up and displayed, are leading me around the skeletons of ships .

[Drunken Savior]

Hmmm...Sold for $5.

[Shipper/Reciever]

If the game is as good as the writing in the intro, I'm down.

Got a 2.1 core 2 due laptop, tho.

[Drunken Savior]

Played through the game. Kinda disappointed. Not enough dialogue to keep my interest. Story was too ambiguous for me to form any kind of connection. Main character seems to move too damn slow (I don't need him to sprint, but he seems to just be crawling everywhere). I mean, for $5, it was worth it to just experience this experimental game. But it'd be hard for me to recommend this to anyone who didn't want to just see what the hubub is about this game.

[Reality]

I would agree. I beat mine under 2 and Half hours. While it left me scratching my head, wondering what did I just play, it'll be a game I'll remember for being so experimental. With some great writers they could really make something interesting out of this play style.

[Drunken Savior]

Is dialogue triggered by entering a space or by looking at things? That kind of threw me off. I spent a lot of time staring at things to try to trigger dialogue. Sometimes I thought it worked, but I might have just been moving.

[Reality]

Yeah everything seems to be triggered by passing a point on the map. So its all scripted.